Truly tiny Miniature species?
 

I'm looking for really mini miniature species, anyone have some names of these micro "monsters" lol. Also if you have any experience with them feel free to share :)

List of recommended mini miniatures: (recommendations from other members)

Acostaea costarricensis
Aerangis punctata
Angraecum distichum
Bulbophyllum gracillimum
Bulbophyllum hirundinis
Bulbophyllum moniliforme
Bulbophyllum pecten-veneris
Bulbophyllum shepherdii
Bulbophyllum vaginatum
Cattleya (Sophronitis) cernua
Cattleya (Laelia) kettieana
Cattleya (Laelia) milleri--not as tiny as some in this group but well worth the space
Cattleya (Laelia) sincorana
Dendrobium bellatulum
Dendrobium cuthbertsonii
Dendrobium jenkinsii
Dendrobium lamyaiae
Dendrobium (Epigeneium) nakaharae
Dinema (Encyclia) polybulbon--ditto on getting big
Haraella retrocalla
Lepanthes saltatrix
Lepanthes telipogoniflora
Lepanthes tsubotae
Lepanthopsis astrophora
Masdevallia mendozae
Masdevallia ‘jelly belly’
Platystele Umbellata
Pleurothallis calyptrostele
Pluerothallis leptotifolia
Pleurothallis peperomioides
Schoenorchis Fragrans


Isabelia virginalis
Isabelia (Sophronitella) violacea
Isabelia (Neolauchea) pulchella--this can grow into a large specimen over time
Meiracyllium trinasutum
Comparettia macroplectron
Tolumnia guianensis--spikes get very long but growths clump nicely
Ornithidium (Maxillaria) sophronitis
Christensonella (Maxillaria) madida
Ornithocephalus inflexus
Trichosalpinx chamaelepanthes
Restrepia striata


___________________________________


Miniature species I keep/kept:
Dracula lotax (died after I got out of the hospital, of course it bloomed while I was gone)
Dendrobium moniliforme - growing like a weed lol
Liparis gibbosa (miss this one so much, died when I was in the hospital last summer :( )
Masdevallia erinacea - growing well
pleurothallis stricta (first pleurothallid I tried, learned what not to do for them lol..... :( )
Schoenorchis fragrans - growing well, 4 new leaves this year
Zootrophion atropurpureum - new but doing well
(would list the seedlings I have but they will be huge later in life lol)


I know of a few other small species (some have been on my want list for a long time), but thought getting a list with care info made would be helpful to people who are just starting out with miniature species. :)


edit: remembered another species I kept

Not really knowing what you want I'll just list a few I have experience with.
Lepanthes telipogoniflora, haraella retrocalla, Pluerothallis leptotifolia, aerangis punctata, angraecum distichum, lepanthopsis astrophora.
Those are all relatively easy to find.
Try Seattle orchids and Andy's orchids.
They both have quite a number of mini orchids.

J&L orchids specializes in small/miniature growing orchid...you might want to check out their catalog.
J&L Orchids ~ Catalog Product List

Pleurothallis calyptrostele (amazing creeping tiny leaves), Acostaea costarricensis (whole adult plants smaller than dime), Pleurothallis peperomioides, Lepanthes tsubotae, Bulbophyllum moniliforme to name just a few :-)

masdevallia erinacea, not sure how well I will do with this one. Seems touchy, but some folks here have been successful with it. It's truly tiny. The leaves are maybe an inch tall.

Masdevallia mendozae. Super touchy. I haven't killed mine yet, but I have come close. I'm hoping it will make a recovery, but I am not confident. There is a hybrid of this called masdevallia jelly belly that is supposed to be more resilient.

Schoenorchis Fragrans. Haven't bloomed it yet, but it seems happy in my terrarium. Seems to be a slow grower compared to my other miniatures, but it grows new roots well and it is very happy in a terrarium.

Haraella Retrocalla. Adorable. Small. Perfect terrarium plant.

Dendrobium Cuthbertsonii is adorable. A prolific bloomer. Just one problem, it's a pain in the neck. It seems like folks are most successful growing it under cattleya light, but for me, it's the watering that's the problem. It needs near constant moisture and the water has to be super pure and it gets almost no fert.

Platystele Umbellata is the newest addition to my miniatures in my terrarium. Its flowers look like tiny raspberries. Supposedly easy to grow in a terrarium, I'll have to get back to you on that though as I just got this one.

The lepanthes and lepanthopsis seem to be the easiest to grow and bloom for me. You stick them in a terrarium environment, keep their temp at around roughly 70 degrees (it can swing five degrees either direction, no biggie) and keep the humidity roughly around 80% and they just grow and bloom. I water them with tap water. I do not fertilize. They get about 8 hours of light from the fixture in my terrarium. I grow them mounted on cork in my terrarium.

Lepanthes Saltatrix is my favorite. The flowers are big enough to see and are a creamy yellow with a pink lip. They're beautiful. The leaves are a bright green with dark green veins. Visually striking. Probably my favorite plant in my terrarium so far. I've seen pics of this one growing in a carpet in a gladware container on top of damp paper towels. That's pretty resilient if you ask me!

I'll also second the recommendation for lepanthopsis astrophora. Mine just bloomed and I love this little guy. It has a zillion spikes. The flowers are super small, but they are this bright purple, so they really stand out. Great plant!

Last plant I would recommend, is dracula lotax. Supposedly this is the easiest of the draculas to grow. I have not had the best luck with it, because I am not good at remembering to water plants that aren't in a glass box. Dracula Lotax is the reason I set up a terrarium. Dracula Lotax isn't exactly a miniature. The flowers are teeny, but the plant is the largest one in my terrarium. The leaves are about the same size as a blade of grass and they grow quite long. Mine has 3 inch long leaves. The biggest problem with this one is that it needs good humidity to bloom. The spikes will fail if it's too warm or too dry.

I mist my terrarium with distilled water every morning just before the lights come on. I water the plants by soaking them in a teeny cup of tap water when I notice that the moss on the mounts isn't spongey anymore. I check for this every morning before I mist, other than this, I don't do much with it. I leave the stuff in the box. The box maintains the humidity at around 80%. The lights are on a timer. I have a water feature that trickles water down the back of the terrarium to help keep the temp below 75 degrees in the summer. It was a cheap way to keep the terrarium cool.

If you want more info on mini miniatures, search the forum for TommyMiami's hygrolon cylinder. That and Ordphien's Nightstand Lantern (another thread you can search for) inspired my choices for my terrarium.

Happy Growing!

[SIZE="1"]@Ordphien: I'm interested in anything unusual or small , thanks for the list of species! I'm slowly compiling a list for myself and also for anyone else to access to see what species are really small and what other members recommend :) .

I've been buying from seattle orchids for a few years, still haven't purchased from Andy's yet.


@katrina: Thanks for the link! I'm always looking to add new sellers to my huge list lol (most of my bookmarks are orchid related and that would be about 200+ :rofl: ).


@TOMMYMIAMI: drooling at the pics of those species! I've been avoiding B. moniliforme for a while, since my warm/intermediate setup still need some more live moss. Have a very small pleurocarp moss that is taking it's sweet time, but need to some other species to add to the mix. Use to have live sphagnum from chile, purple sphagnum, and wiry sphagnum mosses but only the wiry one survives from a few little strands that are slowly growing back. (the other species died while I was sick).


@Paul: I'm getting myself a copy :)


@RandomGemini: that's a lot of info! Thanks :biggrin: Platystele Umbellata is a new one to me, keep us updated on how it does.

I bought it because my husband never takes an interest in my orchids and when I was looking at pictures of it he actually commented that he thought it was pretty. I hope I can grow it! I would love for him to get some enjoyment from my hobby too!

Thought I'd share a peak of my little warm/intermediate orchidarium, a few of my small and young plants that spend the year outside have been added in for winter. I customized the original insert to make it easier for orchid roots to grip onto.

http://i.imgur.com/H4WPJDQ.jpg

Nice! What kind of temps and humidity are you maintaining in there and what are you using for substrate?

That looks really cool!
One of my favorite minis is Angraecum distichum.

What about Bulbophyllum shepherdii which is native to this part of the world.

I hadn't actually measured it lol, but pulled the sensor out of the whites enclosure (no plants for her, she enjoys sleeping on the plants and kills them... she is big lol) and put it in the orchidarium.
Readings:
-----Humidity:

Bottom: constant 70% reading
Top: reads at 66%
Around the plants: 74% reading

The humidity should be higher once more moss is established (the moss is happy and so are some fussy species so things are going well).

Temps are variable, when both the lights are on they raise the orchidariums temps to around 80F, nighttime temps drop to 68F.

The substrate is an inch of peagravel (unwashed so a little clay is still mixed in), then 2.5 inches of a typical orchid mix.

Nice!

I used hydroton for the base of my substrate, so that I could put a tiny pump in there for my water feature, which just trickles down the back wall of my terrarium. On top of that, I have a layer of NZ sphagnum moss sitting on top of a piece of mesh, to keep the moss from clogging the pump. I tried it with just moss initially, but that was, oddly enough, too moist. Humidity stayed at around 90% in the bottom of the terrarium and there wasn't enough air movement, so I had a mold problem and had to pitch all of the old moss and start from scratch.

The black bar that the terracotta pot is hanging from is a spray bar for a water feature. The basin is filled with moss right now and keeping species that like extra moisture moist. The pea gravel layer lets extra water drain below the pots and the bark mix allows air to get in and any excess water can evaporate increasing the humidity.
How does you terrarium look now? (pic?)

http://flic.kr/p/pjupCw

Hopefully this link works, as I am away from my laptop and Tapatalk photos are hit or miss.

Lots of great suggestions so far, here are some of my favorite minis I've grown:

Cattleya (Sophronitis) cernua
Cattleya (Laelia) kettieana
Cattleya (Laelia) milleri--not as tiny as some in this group but well worth the space
Cattleya (Laelia) sincorana
Isabelia virginalis
Isabelia (Sophronitella) violacea
Isabelia (Neolauchea) pulchella--this can grow into a large specimen over time
Dinema (Encyclia) polybulbon--ditto on getting big
Meiracyllium trinasutum
Comparettia macroplectron
Tolumnia guianensis--spikes get very long but growths clump nicely
Ornithidium (Maxillaria) sophronitis
Christensonella (Maxillaria) madida
Ornithocephalus inflexus
Trichosalpinx chamaelepanthes
Restrepia striata
Dendrobium (Epigeneium) nakaharae
Dendrobium lamyaiae
Dendrobium jenkinsii
Dendrobium bellatulum
Bulbophyllum hirundinis
Bulbophyllum pecten-veneris
Bulbophyllum gracillimum
Bulbophyllum vaginatum--kind of a rambler
and a bunch more I forget right now...

Not all of these will like growing in a tank, but most can thrive in a bright, airy windowsill setting, or outdoors much of the year in my climate zone. Sorry to hear about your setback ,but I hope you have fun rebuilding your collection! :)

Thanks! It's a good thing the VA springs and summers are an orchid paradise (we are in a really humid microclimate). Though the seedlings that came with me to Eatonton this summer really loved it! A backbulb that I also bought sent out roots after 3 days. lol

Trust me when I say the orchid loss was the least of my setbacks :( I collected carnivorous plants before I got into orchids and that entire collection did not make it (well 5 plants survived but now down to 4) and the 4 months worth of propagating stock for sale went down the tubes to but c'est la vie! (I don't think about the $$$$$$ lost since I'm healthy and that's pretty important lol) Orchids really began to take over my focus after that :biggrin: and are becoming my new specialty

RE books, forget Northern, get Parsons & Gerritsen's Compendium of Miniature Orchid Species, A SUPERB book. Highly recommended. $140 is a bargain for what you get in those two volumes.

One cool miniature is Stelis uniflora. Flowers quite regularly, too.

Eclecticus chungii (my avatar elsewhere, check on the forum, I've posted on it)
Gomesa colorata (Oncidium coloratum) got to take the pic it's in bloom now. :)

I only grow miniatures right now. Here is a quick list of my modest collection:

Restrepia iris
Restrepia brachypus - a little on the big side for miniatures IMO
Dryadella clavellata - possibly qualifies as a mini-miniature, I'm not totally sure though.
Masdevallia nidifica - cute little masde. This is my first shot at the genus
Stelis mystax
Porroglossum hystrix
Platystele argentosa - great little orchid. Platystele does not get enough attention
Platystele johnsonii - Super tiny!!
Pleurothallis (sylphia) cactantha - TINY!! Definitely a mini-miniature.

I'll add these to the list! Thanks!! (any bloom pics :biggrin: ) also if you ever have a division of platystele argentosa let me know ;) let's spread this little gem around

---------- Post added at 08:40 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:34 PM ----------

Well found a few really micro mini's that I want to acquire but they seem to be nearly impossible to find. If anyone has any divisions of Bulbophyllum globuliforme, Bulbophyllum minutissimum, Bulbophyllum odoardii, or Platystele jungermannioides available let me know! <-- all four are contenders for the smallest orchid species :biggrin:

Well, I would have some bloom pics, but my stupid frog knocked the flower off before it opened. The same frog has done that three times now, he REALLY hates flowers apparently. I probably won't have a division of the argentosa for a little while, but you are first in line! :biggrin:

:rofl: I feel your pain! My whites kills every plant that goes in here tank, she either uproots them or crushes them to death lol

What you need is Pothos. Lots and lots of Pothos... :biggrin::biggrin:

The thing is, the frog (Ranitomeya vanzolinii) is TINY, but he targets my orchids. I watched him do it the first time and I'm sure he's doing it on purpose now. He jumps from the highest point of the tank, straight down onto the flower! :rofl:

John

The pothos received the most abuse! lol she killed it after 6 weeks of constant uprooting and tearing off leaves. She was a rescue frog (horrible original owners) and she seems to like digging more than climbing, her bio-active substrate is now deeper so she can enjoy her time in the dirt :rofl:

Sounds like your frog is jealous of the orchid, or thinks they are a delicious fruit fly hehehehehe Also woohoo love getting on the list for division from a wonderful species.

whoop! got a hold of a small division of Platystele repens! It is said to be a fairly easy warm growing mini (and yes I will end up sharing if it grows like a weed lol)

Sweet! Maybe we can trade Platystele when both of ours get going ;)

THERE ARE SOOOOO many haha

Fernandezia subbiflora is really cute

Here's a real mini miniature Barbosella miersii

Scaphosepalum rapax is one of my fav's - quite small (though WOW, not microscopic like that barbosella!), blooms lots, and can handle quite a bit of mistreatment. Actually it always blooms like crazy after letting it go dry for about a week.